construe

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Borrowed from Late Latin construo, construere (“to relate grammatically”), from Latin construo (“pile together”); doublet of construct.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈstɹuː/

Noun

construe (plural construes)

1. A translation.
2. An interpretation.

Translations

translation

• Bulgarian: превод (bg) m (prevod)
• Esperanto: traduko (eo)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oversetting m or f

• Polish: tłumaczenie (pl) n, translacja f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: tradução (pt) f
• Russian: перево́д (ru) m (perevód)
• Swedish: översättning (sv)

interpretation

• Bulgarian: тълкуване (bg) n (tǎlkuvane)
• Esperanto: interpreto
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tolkning m or f, fortolkning m or f, oppfatning (no) m or f

• Polish: interpretacja (pl) f, tłumaczenie (pl) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: interpretação (pt) f
• Russian: толкова́ние (ru) n (tolkovánije), истолкова́ние (ru) n (istolkovánije)
• Swedish: tolkning (sv), uppfattning (sv)

Verb

1. (transitive) To interpret or explain the meaning of something.

   The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.

   Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons, 1954

2. (grammar, transitive) To analyze the grammatical structure of a clause or sentence; to parse.
   • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 436:

     Thus, in a sentence such as:
     (113)      John considers [_S Fred to be too sure of himself]
     the italicised Reflexive himself can only be construed with Fred, not with John: this follows from our assumption that non-subject Reflexives must have an antecedent within their own S. Notice, however, that in a sentence such as:
     (114)      John seems to me [_S — to have perjured himself]
     himself must be construed with John.

3. (grammar, ergative) To admit of grammatical analysis.
4. (transitive) To translate.
5. To infer.

Derived terms

• construction
• misconstrue

Translations

to interpret or explain the meaning of something

• Bulgarian: тълкувам (bg) (tǎlkuvam)
• Dutch: begrijpen (nl), uitleggen (nl)
• Esperanto: konjekti, klarigi (eo)
• Finnish: tulkita (fi)
• French: expliquer (fr), comprendre (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: értelmez (hu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tolke, oppfatte (no)

• Polish: interpretować (pl), tłumaczyć (pl)
• Russian: толкова́ть (ru) (tolkovátʹ), истолковывать (ru) (istolkovyvatʹ)
• Swedish: tolka (sv), förstå (sv), uppfatta (sv)

to analyze the grammatical structure

• Bulgarian: правя разбор (pravja razbor)
• Finnish: jäsentää (fi)
• Hungarian: elemez (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: rozbierać gramatycznie
• Russian: разбира́ть (ru) (razbirátʹ)

to translate — see translate

Anagrams

• Counters, Cutrones, cornutes, counters, countres, recounts, trounces

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) cōnstrue

1. second-person singular present active imperative of cōnstruō